Lou Reed - Rock 'N' Roll Animal

Recorded live in 1973, Rock N Roll Animal is Reed's glam-rock sneer back at his Velvet Underground legacy. Four of its five tracks are VU classics (two about the redemptive power of rock, two about the transformative power of dope), transformed into slick, flashy twin-guitar noodlefests, with great big riffs and showboating solos and Reed practically phoning in his singing. It was something of a hit at the time, and it's easy to hear how the simple forcefulness of these songs sounded good on early-1970s radio. But Reed doesn't bother to conceal his contempt for the commercial trappings he's put on his songs--"Heroin," in particular, turns from savage ambivalence into an easy cartoon--and the album's hard to like now. --Douglas Wolk